Planes, trains & traffic
This entry was posted on 12/20/2007 12:01 AM and is filed under Traffic,Wasted resources,Leadership.
In the news a lot lately......"chronic air travel delays." From the New York Daily News:
Sen. Schumer eyes air traffic 'czar'
"New York's overcrowded air space - and its harried airline passengers - would benefit from the creation of an 'air czar' to coordinate East Coast flight traffic, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. The New York Democrat also urged the White House to permanently open the military air space temporarily freed up for heavy Thanksgiving commercial air traffic to help alleviate chronic delays.
"Brian Turmail, spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Department, said both of Schumer's suggestions were already under consideration, but warned there were no simple solutions to chronic delays."
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Sure, coordination is a fine idea....and it should be done. But, we know that this problem is not going away. In fact it is, of course, going to get worse. So is the vehicle and truck traffic on our roads - it's a fact, just look at the trends.
The question is: what are we going to do about it? Two primary choices: 1 - add to infrastructure; 2 - recognize that much of our transportation volume is unsustainable and start to do what we should have done 20 years ago.... start charging ourselves for the external costs of our energy use.
A big problem with #1 is that we could be investing in infrastructure that will not be fully used because of our energy issues. Ideally - the world (with the U.S. as a leader) will wisely use the fossil fuel "bubble" we're sitting on (while addressing global warming) to create a new, renewable energy future that doesn't crimp our standard of living much. Pardon the following oft overused phrase.....but, THIS needs to be the "Man on the moon" mission of the next 10 years.
The longer we wait to recognize the need to start phasing-in structural changes in the way we live - things like not wasting energy, flying less, and (horrors) doing things like driving smaller vehicles and car-pooling - the harder the transition is going to be. It's not that I don't like to fly (for example) or begrudge anyone else from doing it. But, as we're learning, our current levels of non-renewable energy use are not sustainable.....so we need to "shift gears" with respect to our energy use and where we get our energy from.
If we're not proactive on this by enacting a federal tax shift from income to non-renewable energy....peak oil will take care of this for us through skyrocketing prices. And it will hurt.
Personally, I think a vacation by train would be a lot of fun. Just two days ago (no kidding) our four year old daughter asked me if we could take a trip on a train.
So, I think it would be fun....but, we haven't done it. I know why. Airplane travel is fun, fast and cheap.
